Iraq keen to import Australian wheat

Iraq hopes to keep importing wheat from Australia, but
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned that it is now a competitive
market.

The Australian government at Tuesday's joint parties meeting will outline its
decision on handling future wheat exports in the wake of the AWB kickbacks
scandal.

Zebari said Iraq's trade minister would be visiting Australia
soon to discuss wheat trade and other bilateral issues between Iraq and
Australia.

He said Iraq had imported Australian wheat for the past 50 to
60 years. But, he said, Iraq had received many offers from Canadian, the US and
European wheat exporters.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
said the government looked forward to the Iraqi trade minister's
visit.

Downer said Australia sold about 450,000 tonnes of wheat to Iraq
last year.

Single desk wheat exports to stayThe single desk
for wheat exports will be retained but will be run by players other than the
disgraced AWB.

Prime Minister John Howard is set to announce the reform
of the wheat marketing system at a partyroom meeting. The compromise is aimed at
quelling a coalition backbench revolt.

The single desk will be managed by
grain exporters other than AWB, which paid $290 million in kickbacks to Saddam
Hussein, and will be overseen by the government through a beefed-up wheat export
authority (WEA), The Australian newspaper reported.